Vacuum Cleaners Discussions

Ive have been researching vacuums the past couple weeks or so. I came across this AMA (Reddit) where the gentleman REALLY suggested Miele canisters for carpet AND bare floor. The apartment I live in now has mostly carpets, but eventually I will be moving into a house. I like carpet, but my girlfriend likes hardwood flooring more. You can probably guess what our next house will have :(. So, I need something that is great on carpets and barefloors (our lease isnt up for 16mo, and just in case the next house does have more carpet than wood flooring.) Two weeks ago, I was absolutely set on some sort of Miele S8 (I was sure I needed the 12 billion step filtration system). Last week I was set on the Sebo D4 (Better warranty, cheaper consumables). Now I am looking at the Riccar Brilliance models. I saw that they have two motors in them; one for floors and one for tools, basically. Since the Riccar doesnt need to compromise suction powered between tools and floors (Bypass vs Direct), wouldnt it be possible to hook a turbo brush up to to hose and just use it as a canister (getting under furniture, cleaning couches, vacuuming hardwood, etc)? I saw some youtube videos of the Riccar vs a Dyson. It highlighted how much agitation the Riccar had vs how little the Dyson has. Ive been reading, and the general consensus is that Agitation + Air flow = cleanest carpets. I have yet to see a video that shows any canister that shakes the floor as much as the Riccar.

Panasonic is the current name used by Matsu$#%*a Electric Industrial Co Ltd of Japan. The Panasonic name was originally only used for consumer electronics sold in the US and Canada but the Panasonic name has such a great reputation they re-named the entire company Panasonic. Matsu$#%*a (pronounced Mat-shoos-ta) was founded in 1918. They have been making electric motors since the early 1940s and began selling vacuums manufactured in Japan to the US market in the 1960s. They also made high fidelity turntables, meaning they made electric motors with very fine rpm control, not as easy to do as making a motor for a vacuum or a blender. Panasonic also manufactured microwave ovens, refrigerators, stereo equipment including speakers and microchips in the US. They have produced home appliances for other brand names as well. If you ever used one of their Jet Flo series vacuums from the 1970s and 1980s you know Panasonic knows how to make a fine vacuum cleaner. They make a very refined and durable product and all of the motors were made in-house, a rarity in the vacuum business. The design of their Jet Flo uprights were shamelessly copied for the first Riccar uprights and Panasonic built Riccar's first canister vacuum for them based on the old Kenmore Whispertone tooling. Today Panasonic provides vacuum motors for the whole industry, not just their own products. You will find Panasonic vacuum motors in most Dyson vacuums (Dyson never made a vacuum motor, all of their vacuums use motors from either Panasonic, YDK or Cinderson). Panasonic also makes most Kenmore vacuums, having bought Whirlpools vacuum making business in 1995 after a five year joint venture with them. If you do not think Panasonic knows how to innovate in the vacuum motor world, find out what makes the Inducer Motor in a Kenmore Elite so special. It was a very clever change that makes that motor so powerful compared to others.

I use Dyson DC46 Motorhead Canister Vacuum Cleaner. It works well!

I used Dyson V6 vacuum cleaner.It works well.

panasonic now out of vac business, Miele best can vac period

I can’t say for sure what the best vacuum cleaner out there is for sure, but in my experience the best vacuum I ever had was a Panasonic MC-CG301. Super cheap and gets the job done. You don’t have to break the bank to get a great vacuum. I got my vacuum for under $80 and it stores really nicely in my closet without taking up hardly any space. I was super sad when the motor stopped working a few months ago.

Panasonic sold the Kenmore side of their vacuum business to Cleva Industrial, maker of Vacmaster shop vacs and Lawnmaster lawn mowers and chain saws. Kenmore just introduced three new canister vacuums. The 600 Series replaces the Progressive line and the 400 and 200 Series replace the Orange and Lime Green vacuums respectively. I had a chance to test a 600 Series at Sears and measured 77 inches of sealed suction at the end of the hose, and it pulled my BAIRD meter out to 7.5. Both numbers, measured at the end of the hose, are very high. The attachments are much better than anything Sears has sold in quite a few years, more like what they sold in the 1980s. The hard floor brush is mounted so you can step on a pedal on the canister and it pops up for you to slide the wand into. When done using it you can return it to the spot on the canister, step on a pedal on the brush to release it from the wand and fold it back flat into the canister with your toe. Very slick. The new Powermate has axels through the wheels, eliminating the wear point that used to allow wheels to fall off. The carry over parts looked and felt exactly like those made by Panasonic. Very nice vacuum and a much better value than anything from Europe. I also tested a new Kenmore Elite. 90 inches of water lift at the hose end, which is outstanding, highest I have ever measured on any vacuum, and it slammed my BAIRD meter to the stop past ten, meaning the Elite has more airflow than a Kirby or any other vacuum for that matter. Very impressive. Miele is cute, but the big Kenny is the King Kong of vacuums today and a much better value. You can find internet returns under $200 pretty much all the time on ebay.

I am using Kent Cyclonic Vacuum Cleaner and it clean dust from floor and carpet very well. With Its powerful motor and brush, it scoops dust and debris from all corners giving you a spot less, dust free environment.

Kent isn't available in the US.

I would recommend you to go with dyson v8 cordless vac or else miele canister vacuum cleaner. 1. Dyson V8 Animal Cord Free Vacuum, Iron/Titanium 2. Miele Complete C2 Hard Floor Canister Vacuum Cleaner with SBD285-3 Combination Rug and Floor Tool + SBB300-3 Parquet Floor Brush.

For as much money as a Miele costs, they do not have the raw cleaning power of a Kenmore Elite. I measure vacuum suction with a suction guage marked in inches of water lift, which is how the vacuum industry measure suction. To measure airflow I use this thing called a BAIRD meter that is marked from 0 to 10. It is what Kirby sales people use to compare their machines to what you have in your home so it is biased in that 0 on a BAIRD meter isn't really zero airflow and 10 is around 120 cubic feet per minute (cfm) airflow. A Miele C3 has the same "Vortek" suction motor used in other Miele vacuums for the last several years. Miele only makes the one suction motor for all their vacuums. A brand new C3 generates 82 inches of suction before the bag indicator pops open and releases suction. It pulls my BAIRD meter out to 6.0. The same day I tested a Kenmore budget model Orange canister (now out of production) floor demo on clearance. It pulled 82 inches of suction and 6.5 on my BAIRD. I later bought one from a local K-Mart and it pulls 84 inches of suction and 7.5 on the BAIRD meter. A Kenmore Elite 800 Series canister I tested the same day pulled 92 inches of suction and pegged my BAIRD meter right past 10, so more than 120 cfm. All of these measurements were taken at the end of each canister's hose. It is the most powerful vacuum I have tested. A new Kirby demoed in my home could only pull 9.0 on the BAIRD meter on the end of its hose. You are spending a lot more than you need to buying a Miele. Btw, Miele power nozzles are notoriously poor on American style deep pile carpets. They are fine if you have a shorter pile carpet but they bog down on deep carpets. Same thing for Wessel-Werk power nozzles. As for filtration, Kenmore has an excellent cloth HEPA dust bag for their canisters called the Q bag that can be bought in a package of six for $20.99 from Sears. They have a two stage pre-motor filter with activated charcoal on the back side (something Miele does not have) called the CF-1 filter and they all have HEPA exhaust filters with those on the new 600 series and the Elite 700 and 800 series having a layer of activated charcoal on them. The activated charcoal eliminates exhaust odors.